Well now, this seems ambitious. That’s not me trying to be backhanded or say I think it can’t or won’t happen — Eyehategod have spent the entirety of their 30-year career of sticking a collective middle finger in the face of the universe, and in so doing helped to define an essential element of what sludge became in their wake — just that as frontman Mike Williams comes back from a liver transplant, a 39-date US tour is a hell of a way to do it. Granted, if anyone can, it’s Williams, and it’s Eyehategod — on whom the universe has consistent shit in response to the aforementioned middle finger — but again, pretty ambitious.

They’ll play with Phobia, Cro-Mags, Negative Approach, The Obsessed, Pig Destroyer and others on the run, the dates for which appear below, hand-delivered by the PR wire:

EYEHATEGOD Announces Left To Starve Summer Tour With Negative Approach, Cro-Mags, And More On Select Dates

EYEHATEGOD will kick off a thirty-nine-date US mega tour next month. The Left To Starve summer takeover will commence on August 1st, run through September 13th, and includes performances with Capitalist Casualties, Phobia, Primitive Man, Negative Approach, Antiseen, Cro-Mags, Pig Destroyer, The Obsessed, and Mountain Of Wizard on select dates! The journey also marks frontman Mike IX Williams’ lengthiest tour since undergoing liver transplant surgery this past December.

Comments IX Williams, “This band, for better or worse, has endured a mind-numbing and brain-expanding thirty years of making some of the most criminally riff filled and abhorrent sounds ever heard on the planet earth. No middle ground; EYEHATEGOD is either wonderfully loved or instinctively hated. Predicting the future accidentally and preaching the end time message, see the band LIVE now before something else bad happens…”

The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight (2000)

Hard to believe nobody has stepped up to reissue the 2000 self-titled debut and only outing to-date from The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, and likewise that some true believer heading a festival at home or abroad hasn’t convinced guitarist Jimmy Bower to play a reunion show under the weighty banner. Because even 17 years later, listening to this record, it’s as much a party as it is a collection of songs. True tonally to peer outfits like Spirit Caravan, Corrosion of Conformity and maybe even Sixty Watt Shaman in some of its Southern elements, the differentiating factor with The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight was the jam, and while the band may or may not have been started as a side-project from Bower looking to continue to scratch a groovier itch coming off his initial run in Southern metal supergroup Down, bringing on board Eyehategod bandmate Joe LaCaze (drums, R.I.P. 2013), bassist Andy Sheppard, fellow guitarist Paul Webb and keyboardist Ross Karpelman — whose organ work proves so crucial throughout to songs like “Ride Out” and “Trapeze” — they immediately made themselves stand out by being even more of and about their place: New Orleans. To wit, album opener “Swamp Jam” — as apt a description of their style as you’re going to come across — starts at a parade.

Let’s just assume that’s Mardi Gras, because even if it isn’t, it kicks off an absolute blast of a time. The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight was prescient in its incorporation of classic ’70s influences, and the dynamic between Bower and his cohorts comes through all the more as an instrumental band, since the jams just flow openly without the need for a rigid verse/chorus structure, allowing “Swamp Jam” to trip out in its second half, Sheppard‘s bassline holding it together as Karpelman‘s keys drive a sort of miniaturized Purple-tinged Made in Japan exploration. The tone thusly set, the band only pushes deeper into good vibes and heavy grooves. “Electrode” is the shortest track at five minutes and winds its way into some boogie, hitting into starts and stops that would seem a direct precursor for the kinds of funk Clutch would be proffering six years later, and “Ride Out” follows by smoothing its initial thrust into a slow-motion nod, the guitars milking every riff cycle for all it’s worth ahead of the aforementioned “Trapeze” delving into direct key-and-guitar conversation — not to mention the welcome advent of some cowbell from LaCaze. Also one of the more extended tracks at 7:25 along with “Swamp Jam” at the outset and 10-minute closer “El Niño Brown” still to come, “Trapeze” emphasizes how much The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight thrived in a longer-form context, and while they dip back into more straight-ahead fare with “A Fool’s Outfit,” putting some space between “Trapeze” and the finale, by then the vibe is so spread out that they basically can go wherever they want. If you’ve ever in your life uttered the phrase, “It’s all good,” side B of The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight would be a good reason why. Or side A, for that matter.

They had two splits out after the record, both in 2001. If you can get it, the Acid King split on Man’s Ruin is an absolute monster, both bands utterly on fire, and their let’s-cover-Skynyrd-and-we’ll-get-Pepper–Keenan-to-sing-on-it shared 7″ with The Obsessed on Southern Lord is as righteous as the concept sounds. But that’s it to-date, though a post just over a year ago on a seemingly official Thee Facebooks page read simply, “Riffs are being written….” and listed the band’s lineup as Bower on drums along with Aaron Hill, Webb and Kevin Bond (Superjoint, ex-Floodgate) on guitar, Sheppard on bass and Karpelman once again on keys, so who knows, maybe something will manifest. Particularly after revisiting the self-titled, you wouldn’t find me arguing. Let the parade begin again.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

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Next week is the Quarterly Review, and even as I’m signing off for today ahead of not posting tomorrow or Sunday, I’ve already begun and will be continuing to put it together as much as possible over the weekend. It’s 50 reviews this time, Monday to Friday. I could’ve added a sixth day again, but opted not to. Maybe next time. Probably not. For some reason, that extra 10 writeups made a really big difference in my head last time out.

There was supposed to be a Six Dumb Questions interview today with Doctor Cyclops along with a full-stream of their new album, but technical complications prevented it from coming together in time. So it goes. I’m sure as soon as this post goes live the embed code will come through. Because that’s pretty much how things happen these days. EDIT: Exactly what happened.

Anyhoo, that will be up Monday, in addition to the first day of the Quarterly Review, which is abbreviated in my notes as QR1. Here’s the rest of what’s on tap for the week to come, all subject to change as usual:

Pure. Fucking. Chaos. It’s gonna be a lot to put together, and I’m thinking about taking next Friday off work in no small part just to crash out after doing all of that nonsense — and of course news and whatever else on top of it — throughout the week, but yeah. That’s the plan. It’ll all work out as much as it’s going to, and if some stuff doesn’t, like that Doctor Cyclops thing today, there will be other stuff to step in and take the place of whatever falls out. So much music. No money in writing about any of it. No way to make a living off doing this.

Speaking of, you may notice the All That is Heavy sponsorship link is gone. Deal didn’t really work out to be that beneficial for either party, so we called it off. Just like that. If you managed to get 15 percent off an order, I hope you got some good stuff. Of course I still support Dan and his endeavors all the way and recommend ATiH for your heavy shopping needs happily.

What else? I don’t know. Roadburn’s coming. I’m basically counting the days until that happens, as one does.

Family coming north this weekend, which will be good. My sister and oldest nephew. Looking forward to seeing them both, getting up in the morning to work on Quarterly Review stuff, having good coffee and drinking it slowly, and generally chilling out, hopefully getting my head right and so on. Maybe watch some baseball. Weekend stuff. You know.

Whatever you’re up to, please have a great time and a safe time. Have fun, be careful out there and stay tuned for an absolute onslaught of music starting on Monday. It’s gonna be a marathon but it’s gonna be awesome.

We continue with day four of the Quarterly Review. This batch is numbers 31-40 of the total 60, not that the numbers really mean anything. I know it’s list season — believe me, I know — but there’s no actual ranking going on. It’s just basically so I can keep track and remember what day it is. That’s not to say this is done off the cuff. Actually, there’s an embarrassing amount of planning behind these things. Months. And when I start actually getting the posts ready and realize I’ve slated the same record on two different days — something that’s happened no fewer than three times so far, needing each time to be corrected — it’s a clear demonstration of the value of my planning. Ha. Anyway, we press on. Together. Into the thick of it. Thanks for reading.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Crowbar, The Serpent Only Lies

More than 25 years and 11 albums into a landmark career that helped prove the existence of the hairy beast known as “sludge metal,” Crowbar don’t owe anyone anything, and since returning to activity with 2011’s Sever the Wicked Hand (review here) and 2014’s Symmetry in Black, they’ve played like it. Their third post-resurgence outing is The Serpent Only Lies (on eOne Heavy), and though it works largely to form – that is, Crowbar are going to sound like Crowbar: low, slow, seeming to lurch even when dug into fits of gallop on “I am the Storm” or the early going of “The Enemy Beside You” – one still finds progression especially in the vocal approach of frontman and founder Kirk Windstein, who self-harmonizes effectively on the title-track’s standout hook as well as the later pair “On Holy Ground” and “Song of the Dunes,” the latter also resoundingly spacious in a way that offsets much of The Serpent Only Lies’ head-down intensity. This might be flourish or a companion to the core Crowbar sound that remains intact throughout, but the truth is it’s not like it needs to be there – Crowbar’s audience would still go to the shows even if the band stopped growing – but it’s entirely to the credit of the New Orleans legends that more than a quarter-century later they continue to progress. I guess that’s how Crowbar gets to be Crowbar.

Katatonia, The Fall of Hearts

Depending on what you count as a full-length, The Fall of Hearts (on Peaceville) is either the 10th or 11th studio record from Sweden’s Katatonia. It follows 2013’s acoustic Dethroned and Uncrowned, which reenvisioned 2012’s Dead End Kings and brings forth over an hour of new material from founding duo Jonas Renkse (vocals/guitar/etc.) and Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström (guitar/backing vocals), as well as Niklas Sandin (bass) and Daniel Moilanen (drums), who, working with engineer KarlDaniel Lidén (ex-Greenleaf, Demon Cleaner), continue to proffer resonant melancholy in abundance. As a band, Katatonia have had a number of different phases over the years, from their deathly beginnings through the later moves into melody, but as it stands on songs like “Decima,” with its acoustic and mellotron arrangement, and the seven-minute “Serac,” which plays back and forth between serene and some of The Fall of Hearts’ most intense thrust, they remain among heavy metal’s most recognizable acts. There is no one else who sounds like them, and they sound not quite like anyone else. This collection might be more about gradual steps forward than radical shifts in approach, but Katatonia have found a way to preach to their converted and keep growing at the same time, and that’s to be commended.

Ethereal Riffian, I am Deathless

Issued via Robustfellow in a range of physical editions from an oversized CD digipak to cassette bundles, the two-song I. AM. Deathless EP from yet-underrated Ukrainian progressive ritualists Ethereal Riffian warrants the ceremony with which it arrives. Its two tracks, “Drum of the Deathless” (6:19) and “Sword of the Deathless” (9:57) closed and opened, respectively, the prior 2016 live outing, Youniversal Voice (review here), and in their studio form they bring to bear a vision of psychedelic metal given to atmospheric breadth that comes at the expense neither of purpose nor impact. The opener proves the more immediate of the pair, but as “Sword of the Deathless” plays out, it finds prog-metal swirl amid low-end starts and stops intertwined layers of multi-channel spoken word, acoustic and electric guitar and percussive tension, so that as it heads into its payoff and melodic finish, the resolution is both satisfying and something of a relief from the cacophony preceding. Forward-thinking and of marked substance, I. AM. Deathless offers a quick glimpse at the band’s scope and invites listeners to dive deep therein.

Dot Legacy, To the Others

There isn’t much that’s off-limits to Parisian heavy rockers Dot Legacy. To wit, the near-rap-rock mania of opener “Horizon” from their second LP, To the Others (on Setalight Records), and the laid-back psych-lounge vibes that follow on “Grey Cardinal,” only to be swept away in crashes and chants later, leading to the driving desert punkery of “211.” Three songs, three distinct feels, and Dot Legacy only get weirder from there as they toy with fuzzed momentum on “5314” and “Dakota” before the dreamy post-rock meandering of “The Twelve,” the prog-pop of “Story of Fame” and piano-laden psych-drama of closer “Pioneer.” In 35 minutes, the four-piece cover more ground than most bands do in their whole careers, but that becomes even more admirable in that they manage not to just be all over the place, but to provide a consistent quality of songwriting to complement all that quirk. Add to that the attention to detail in vocal harmonies and arrangements, and as they follow-up their 2014 self-titled debut (review here), they reveal a clear sense of a master plan at work under all the brashness and genre-hopping.

Salem’s Bend, Salem’s Bend

Self-released by the Los Angeles trio in late-2015 and picked up for a vinyl issue through Ripple Music, the self-titled debut from Salem’s Bend leaves little wonder as to why with its classic sensibility and the vibe proliferated by the natural-toned nod of a song like “Silverstruck.” Though still prone to a bit of Hendrix-style shred when it comes to lead guitar, the three-piece of Bobby (guitar/vocals), Kevin (bass) and Zach (drums) depart from some of the post-Radio Moscow all-thrust boogie in favor of more laid back fair and on that cut and the later “Sun and Mist,” which hits into a satisfying apex in its second half without feeling overcooked, as well as the six-minute finale “A Tip of Salem,” which nods through its initial movement before bursting out toward the end. In a crowded SoCal scene, just about anything Salem’s Bend can do to stand apart will serve them, and the fluidity they hone across these seven tracks sets them up to do just that.

Thonian Horde, Thonian Horde

Given the personnel involved, the black ‘n’ roll extremity of Thonian Horde’s self-titled debut full-length will no doubt come as a surprise to listeners. Formed in Boonsboro, Maryland, by bassist/vocalist Ron “Fezz” McGinnis (Pale Divine, Admiral Browning, etc.), guitarists Darren “Dirty” Waters (Weed is Weed) and Dan “D-Mize” Mize (Faith in Jane), and drummer Tyler “The Beast” Lee (Weed is Weed), one might expect high-order Frederick-style post-The Obsessed doom. Thonian Horde have more in common with Immortal on their centerpiece track “Darkest Nights Shadow,” and even as the closing “Psychonaut” finds a rock groove in its chorus, it does so with the hooky edge of Satyricon more than any of the members’ other outfits. No doubt that’s the point: doing something different. Indeed, the nine-tracker is a refreshing aesthetic reboot for the scene from whence it comes, holding fast to their region’s crucial lack of pretense even as they brazenly walk their own path – left-hand, of course.

Second Sun, Tachyonregenerator

I don’t know about you, but I missed out on Hopp/Förtvivlan, which was the 2015 debut full-length from Swedish rockers Second Sun, so to have Gaphals provide gentle encouragement to check it out by getting behind the two-songer single Tachyonregenerator is most welcome. Both cuts included – “Tachyonregenerator” and “Tror Faktiskt På Dig” – bask in classic vibe without being overly showy when it comes to retroism, and are marked out by the inclusion of organ amid the natural-sounding guitar, drums and bass, the vocals presented in Swedish across both pieces. It’s a quick eight-minutes perfect for the 7” pressing it’s been given, but again, makes enough of an impression that one is inclined toward further investigation, and given that, I can’t call it anything other than a success. I’ll go ahead and chalk up one more quality Swedish act to keep track of, because Second Sun offer tight-knit progressive leanings in a crisp package on Tachyonregenerator, and even if I’m late to the party, I’m glad I got to hear it.

Ten Ton Slug, Brutal Gluttonous Beast

Some pretty clear self-awareness demonstrated in Ten Ton Slug’s self-released debut EP, Brutal Gluttonous Beast. The Galway, Ireland, five-piece had a prior live-recorded two-tracker, but these four songs mark their first studio outing, and as they draw together massive sludge riffing and more extreme, death metal-style growls, there’s precious little one might say to more accurately describe a track like “Trollhunter” – the opener and longest on the release (immediate points) – than that it lives up to the title, its second-half slowdown lurch prefacing a similar move in “Bloodburns” before the more rampaging “Subterranean” and noise-soaked burl of “Unit” take hold. Intense and vicious, but not necessarily unhinged, Brutal Gluttonous Beast finds Ten Ton Slug sounding remarkably sure in their approach, and one will await the news of their traveling to England to record with Chris Fielding at Skyhammer, since that seems to be the kind of presentation for which the tonal onslaught here is begging.

Komatsu, Recipe for Murder One

A half-decade after releasing their self-titled EP (review here), Eindhoven heavy/noise rockers Komatsu reemerge on Argonauta Records with the follow-up full-length, Recipe for Murder One. Boasting a guest appearance from Nick Oliveri on the suitably tumultuous “Lockdown,” the album leaves little to wonder what’s in that recipe in the darker-desert vibe of “So How’s About Billy” and “There Must be Something in Your Water,” which teases airy serenity in its first half only to go full-throttle for the second, but as the bass-driven lumber of the title-track and subtle melodic expansion of “The Sea is Calm Today” show, Komatsu haven’t wasted the last five years, instead constructing their own take on sonic density and sludge impulses that seems to hit with formidable impact regardless of tempo or tension level, both of which prove to be fluid elements at the four-piece’s disposal. They get the point across quickly in the stomp of “The Long Way Home,” but find suitable resolution in the nod of closer “Breathe,” rounding out a debut of significant character and depth with one last surprise in ambience it’s only fair to call progressive.

The Blue Sunshine Family Band, The Blue Sunshine Family Band

A double-guitar instrumental four-piece from Santa Rosa, California, The Blue Sunshine Family Band make their debut with a six-song/51-minute self-titled. Tracks presented as Roman numerals “I” through “VI,” though whether or not they’re actually the first six pieces the band has written, I couldn’t say. Either way, the impression immediately draws from “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” – that great king of nod riffs – and first-name-only guitarists Billy and Kevin, bassist Matt and drummer Quinten build outward from there, dipping below the eight-minute mark only on “V” (7:14) as they unfurl solid grooves and tonal heft, seeming to leave room for vocals either consciously or not. The converted will find engagement and immersion in the crash and swinging turn of “IV,” as well as the David Paul Seymour cover art, and if The Blue Sunshine Family Band is the sound of this foursome getting their feet under them, they manage to accomplish that preliminary feat and then some in these tracks.

In case you didn’t feel the earth shake at the time, New Orleans sludge progenitors Crowbar released their latest album, The Serpent Only Lies, last week. Out through eOne Heavy, it follows 2014’s Symmetry in Black and 2011’s Sever the Wicked Hand (review here) as the Kirk Windstein-led outfit continue their progression from an ’00s metal style back toward the lurching and roughed-up Sabbathian plod of their earliest work. One can hear that process taking place in the track “Falling While Rising,” which in addition to the sound, also provides a signature Crowbar approach in its downer lyric and Windstein‘s unmistakably guttural vocals.

The Serpent Only Lies is the 11th Crowbar album, so it’s not surprised to find them sounding very much in their element on it, but like the most landmark of multi-decade-spanning metal bands — your Iron Maidens, your Slayers; groups who’ve influenced a generation — their delivery remains powerful. Fact is, Crowbar belong in that class of acts, even if their aesthetic has always been in search of something rawer, and “Falling While Rising” demonstrates their root contribution to what sludge became in their wake, both around the fertile New Orleans scene and worldwide. As many acts who’ve tried, there’s still nobody who does Crowbar better than Crowbar.

They’ve got tour dates with Goatwhore newly announced for December. You’ll find them under the video and the PR wire info below.

Please enjoy:

Crowbar, “Falling While Rising” official video

NOLA legends CROWBAR have debuted their music video for “Falling While Rising” today. Directed by Justin Reich (ACE FREHLEY, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY), this is the first video installment from the band off their new LP.

Crowbar released The Serpent Only Lies, on October 28, 2016 via Entertainment One (eOne) in North America and via SPV overseas. “We are so excited about our 11th studio record! The Serpent Only Lies is a powerful follow up,” says frontman and guitarist Kirk Windstein. “Eliran Kantor did a brilliant job with the artwork!”

The band announced co-headlining tour dates with NOLA neighbors GOATWHORE, capping off the calendar year with style. “This upcoming tour is one that we’re all looking forward to!,” says Kirk Windstein. “These are our Brothers. Hell, Sammy Duet was in Crowbar for a few of our best records! To the fans of both bands, here’s your early Christmas present! and we are super stoked to have Lillake on this tour with us!”

Suplecs, Sad Songs… Better Days (2001)

If you ever wanted a crash course in everything right about the Man’s Ruin era of heavy rock and roll, look no further than Suplecs‘ second album, Sad Songs… Better Days. Released in 2001 as the follow-up to the prior year’s Wrestlin’ with My Lady Friend, its nine tracks still provide 15 years after the fact an abject lesson in how to offer kickass riffs with zero pretense, how to develop a natural-feeling dynamic not through production wizardry but through actually having one, and how to craft material that’s diverse in structure but flows front to back while asking so little of the listener that you and the record might as well be cracking a beer on the back porch together on a lazy Saturday afternoon, which, as it happens, isn’t a bad way to to enjoy Sad Songs… Better Days if cracking a beer is your thing. From the rolling and catchy groove of opener “White Devil” onward through the subsequent hook of “Rock Bottom” and down through the bass-led groove of the languid “Blue Runner,” the prescient shuffle of “Unstable,” which morphs into a secret cover of The Beatles‘ “I Want You (She’s so Heavy)” and “Lightning Lady” and the weirdnes that lies beyond in “Out of Town” and closer “Unexpected Trauma,” which also has a secret track attached — seems Suplecs wanted one per side; this time it’s a little countrified twanger instrumental — it wound up being the kind of album you listened to and could only nod your head in agreement: Yes. This is what it’s all about.

The story of Suplecs is complicated on some levels and easy on others. When I note them as essential to the “Man’s Ruin era,” I mean the period of between roughly 1995 to 2002 when Frank Kozik‘s Man’s Ruin Records provided a guiding hand to the post-Kyuss world of heavy rock. By the time 2000 brought Wrestlin’ with My Lady Friend, the imprint had already issued pivotal outings from High on Fire, Goatsnake, Brant Bjork, Alabama Thunderpussy, Acid King, Natas, Queens of the Stone Age, etc., and with names like that — bands who went on to define a generation of heavy rock, and that’s by no means an exhaustive list — it’s easy to see how Suplecs get lost in the discussion. Their beginning dating back to 1996 when bassist/vocalist Danny Nick, fresh out of Eyehategod joined up with guitarist Durel Yates and drummer Andrew Preen, they put their first EP out in 1998, but the two Man’s Ruin outings would largely define them, even after the label folded in 2002 on the eve of what would’ve been Suplecs‘ first tour of Europe. Timing is everything.

I recall being ultra-stoked to get a demo of new material from them in 2003 or 2004 at a Small Stone Records showcase at SXSW — still have it — and sure enough, in 2005 they’d release Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside, a rawer third album that went largely unpromoted thanks in no small part to the effect Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans, including on the band. It would be some six years before Suplecs managed to get a record out, and 2011’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here) found them aligned to Small Stone officially for the first time and pulling together the various sides of their sound with a crisp production from the studio mentioned in the title. In no small part, it was just nice to have Suplecs back. That was five years ago. Since then, they’ve continued to play sporadic shows — they have one on Oct. 15 in Nola with High on Fire, for example, and they marked their 20th anniversary in August alongside Dixie Witch — and Nick has opened a bar called Portside Lounge, so it’s not like they’re actually finished, but clearly priorities have shifted.

Still, I wouldn’t ever count Suplecs out. Hurricanes, folded labels, and the march of time itself — they seem impervious to all of it — so don’t be surprised when or if they show up with a new record. Until then, Sad Songs… Better Days, which was reissued on CD in 2002 on This Dark Reign and on vinyl last year through Emetic Records, is about as timeless as heavy rock gets.

I hope you enjoy.

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Holy shit, this week. I stayed home sick from work yesterday and Wednesday and have spent the majority of the time since Tuesday afternoon wanting to grip myself from the collarbone and tear my body open to let my guts spill out. Absolutely demolished, particularly in the mornings, which if you read these posts is when I write reviews. In that way, it was actually kind of fortunate this week was the Quarterly Review — thanks for checking it out if you did — since the majority of it was done beforehand, but wow, it has been a slog. I think yesterday was actually worse than Wednesday, and I can’t really account for consciousness today either. I’m just trying to get through it to finish out the week at work and be caught up from not being in the office the last two days. Brutal.

I don’t think you’d know that from the amount of stuff that’s gone up the last couple days though. It’s been a busy week as well as crushing, and I expect no less next week either. Look out for streams and reviews from Varego, Melmak, maybe Captain Crimson and Lamp of the Universe, as well as a review of the Lo Sound Desert documentary that’s long overdue, as well as a Långfinger video premiere, a new clip from Dot Legacy that’s been making the rounds and news about Freak Valley 2017. Amazing to think that festivals next summer have started to announce their lineups.

That said, I’ve been experimenting with advance planning myself. I have reviews slated through Oct. 26 currently, and while that’s obviously a flexible schedule pending the stream offers that come in and stuff like that, it’s kind of reassuring to have a calendar and to be able to say, “Okay, I’m finally gonna tackle the Truckfighters record on this day, the Worshipper record on that day.” An extension of the impulse driving the Quarterly Review, maybe, since that’s worked out over a period of months before it actually goes live, but either way, thus far it’s made life less stressful rather than more and at this point I’ll take what I can get in that regard. See ripping myself open above.

It’s a three-day weekend for me, no work on Monday, but I’ll be posting anyhow. I hope to continue recovery from whatever the fuck it is that has besieged me this last half-week, and be back up to speed by the time Tuesday hits. Fingers crossed.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Please check out the forum and the radio stream.

Nola sludge progenitors Crowbar will release their 11th studio album, The Serpent Only Lies, via eOne Heavy on Oct. 28. The band’s last outing was 2014’s Symmetry in Black, which was preceded in 2011 by Sever the Wicked Hand (review here) — their first for eOne — which marked a resurgence that’s now five years running and finds Crowbar among underground metal’s most respected mainstays. They’ve been everywhere, they’ve seen everything, and rather than give into any of what is no doubt a copious amount of bullshit they’ve been through in their years together, they continue to push forward.

Particularly interested in guitarist/vocalist Kirk Windstein saying he went back to old Crowbar and old Crowbar influences this time out, as some of the more modern metallurgy of their recent output had marked a big sonic turn for the band.

Many tour dates, much info, and a teaser, from the PR wire:

CROWBAR ANNOUNCE THE SERPENT ONLY LIES, DUE OUT 10/28

TEASER AVAILABLE NOW!

New Orleans sludge masters Crowbar have announced their eleventh new LP titled The Serpent Only Lies, due out October 28, 2016. “We are so excited about our 11th studio record! The Serpent Only Lies is a powerful follow up.” says frontman and riff lord Kirk Windstein. “Eliran Kantor did a brilliant job with the artwork! Our first release, “Falling While Rising”, is Crowbar at its finest… HEAVIER THAN EVER!!!”

The Serpent Only Lies will be the follow up to the highly buzzed about Symmetry in Black that sold over 4,000 copies in its first week of release in 2014, the highest of any LPs in the band’s 27 year career, beating out its predecessor, 2011’s Sever the Wicked Hand.

For nearly three decades, the name Crowbar has been synonymous with HEAVY. Since rising ominously from the swamplands of New Orleans in 1990, they’ve been hailed internationally as one of the world’s foremost purveyors of crushing, melodic sludge. The Serpent Only Lies, is both an affirmation of the band’s staying power and a nod to their legacy. “To me, it’s a fresh-sounding version of old-school Crowbar,” says Windstein.

“I intentionally went back and listened to a lot of old Crowbar stuff, like the self-titled and Broken Glass albums, to get a feel for what my mindset was 20-plus years ago. I also went back and listened to the bands that influenced Crowbar in the beginning, like Trouble, Saint Vitus, Melvins, and the first Type O Negative record. So it was kinda me doing my homework.”

The result is an album that stands toe-to-toe with those early Crowbar classics while maintaining the lumbering hooks of mid-period standouts like 1998’s Odd Fellows Rest and 2000’s Equilibrium. “Even lyrically, the approach was a little more old-school,” Windstein offers. “Some of the songs have less lyrics to let the riffs breathe a little more, which I had kind of gotten away from over the years. It was a conscious thing to go back to that.”

The tour cycle for The Serpent Only Lies marks the return of original Crowbar bassist Todd “Sexy T” Strange, who left the band back in 1999 but now joins Windstein, drummer Tommy Buckley and guitarist Matt Brunson in forging Crowbar’s future. “Todd helped start the band, so having him back is important to me and, I think, the fans,” Windstein offers. “It’s a great feeling to be standing onstage next to him. It’s a breath of fresh air for the band and makes us stronger.”

“Having this be our eleventh record, we’re very fortunate because so many bands don’t last this long,” Windstein adds. “My whole outlook on music as a career is the Motörhead outlook, which is that slow and steady wins the race. If you continue to put out killer records, continue to kick ass onstage every night and continue to treat your fans with respect, that’s the stuff people will remember.”

I can’t imagine High on Fire and Crowbar are going to run into too many complaints about this one. “Oh no, don’t tour together. Anything but that.” Actually, scrap that. They are going to run into complaints. Lots of them. From everywhere they’re not playing. Because now that I think about it, this is a run that should really go nationwide. They’re labelmates on eOne, and it only seems reasonable that two bands as thoroughly devastating should bring their combined pummel to as many suspecting and unsuspecting skulls as possible. Maybe it’s a precursor to a full US tour? Maybe the South just gets lucky this time around.

From what I hear, Crowbar are headed back overseas in the New Year. More on that to come. Till then, this is fresh off the PR wire:

HIGH ON FIRE Announces U.S. Tour Dates

Legendary Metal Band’s Late Autumn Trek to Feature Support from Crowbar

Universally celebrated, heavy metal power trio HIGH ON FIRE has announced U.S. tour dates in support of its new album, Luminiferous. The trek will launch on December 10 in Nashville, TN and will feature support from New Orleans’ sludge kings, Crowbar.

HIGH ON FIRE’s new album, Luminiferous, was released on June 23 via eOne Music and, in the time since, has been praised as one of the strongest moments of the award-winning band’s career. Recorded at Salem, Massachusetts’ GodCity Studios with producer Kurt Ballou.

Acid Bath, When the Kite String Pops (1994)

I’ve been riding some ’90s regression pretty hard the last few weeks (months) or so. Not claiming I was cool enough to be down with Acid Bath‘s When the Kite String Pops when it came out on Rotten Records in 1994 — and neither were 95% of the people who’ll tell you they were, or the band would’ve been huge — but the vibe suits me pretty well now, its pre-genre take on sludge feels less hedged in by aesthetic than a lot of what came later, as it inevitably would. Formed a couple years after Eyehategod in Louisiana, Acid Bath were sort of lumped in the same scene, but there’s more going on than slowed-down hardcore on When the Kite String Pops and its 1996 follow-up, Paegan Terrorism Tactics, a heavier-edged post-grunge head-down malaise coming through in the vocals of frontman Dax Riggs on “Tranquilized” and any number of other cuts throughout the record’s overwhelming peak-CD-era 69-minute span. I’d call it unmanageable, but the album’s actually worth paying attention to across that time. You figure out a way to manage.

Whether it’s their Nola compatriots in Eyehategod, Soilent Green or even Crowbar, Acid Bath tapped into a vibe that no one else of their ilk and era quite captured in the same way. Eyehategod, more drugs. Soilent Green, more grind. Crowbar, slower. But it’s the fact that they found their own niche — clean vocals, flourish of keys, etc. — that I think has sustained Acid Bath‘s cult following more than two decades after the fact. Of course, guitarist Sammy Duet can now be found in Goatwhore with Soilent Green‘s Ben Falgoust, and Dax Riggs has garnered some measure of a following as a solo singer-songwriter, but after the death of bassist/backing vocalist Audie Pitre in 1997, Acid Bath went on for a while but would never get to putting out a third record. As such, their two offerings retain an individual mark on the fertile heaviness of New Orleans in sound and overall vibe, even if they’re something of a footnote commercially compared to later acts.

Hope you enjoy.

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I’m in Maryland tonight and tomorrow for the Vultures of Volume fest, and it starts in less than an hour so I’ll keep it brief. It was a hell of a trip getting here between waiting three hours for AAA to come pick up The Patient Mrs.‘ car last night at a rest stop on the side of I-95 in Massachusetts that we found out later was named “Pickle Park” after all the dudes meeting there to have sex in the woods. It was not the Thursday evening I’d planned, to say the least, and well, if you’re meeting people at a rest stop to get it on and that’s your thing, okay, but it made for a weird three-hour feeling of intrusion on my part.

Got to Connecticut a little before midnight, crashed, and continued south this morning, stopping in Jersey to pick up a camera and lens I rented only to find out that I couldn’t afford the $2,000 hold they were apparently going to put on my credit card. I don’t have a $2,000 line of credit, and they couldn’t split up the sale over different cards, so I have my regular camera instead of a nice, fancy one for the fest. Felt great. Really. Really great. Really made that 80 minutes I drive each way to work every day — not today, obviously — feel worthwhile. Feels awesome to still be broke while I work to support someone else’s financial interests.

So needless to say I’m in the perfect headspace to go rock out for the next seven hours or so. Should be a blast. Gotta remember to hydrate. Gotta remember the ibuprofen in my bag. Sore feet I’m just gonna have to deal with — forgot to bring supportive footwear; sandals it is — but the rest I should be able to reasonably control, including the much-needed attitude adjustment.

Hold nose, dive in.

Reviews on Monday and Tuesday? Maybe Tuesday and Wednesday, depending on Labor Day celebration and how much I’m feeling like opening my laptop. We’ll see.

Wherever you’re at, please stay safe and have a great weekend, and please check out the forum and radio stream.